Benjamin Berg lives in Houston, Texas. He is Caucasian/white. He opened a Chinese restaurant and named it “Benny Chows.” Some people find this problematic or offensive.
Here’s the story.
I notice that the same company has an Italian restaurant named Trattoria Sofia. I’m guessing three things: the purveyor is not Italian; there is no-one named Sofia associated with the purveyor; and no-one objected to the restaurant name at any time.
It’s hard to know exactly what folks are objecting to, they will be serving “Chinese” food after all, unless it is that the name could be interpreted as mocking anyone with the name Chow, which would normally probably be a Chinese surname (or given name, I guess). I don’t see it as mocking, but it is apparently sort of a pun and therefore not deeply respectful.
If it were me I would probably change the name, as I have no wish to even remotely insult an ethnic group. On the other hand, the imp of the perverse in my nature might want to change the name to “Benny’s Chinese,” which is either literally true (Benny’s Chinese restaurant) or literally false (Benny is Chinese) which is another kind of ambiguity different from the original pun. But I probably wouldn’t be that perverse either, and I’d just call it Benny’s or something bland like that.
I’m really not sure what to think of this. It does strike me as at least mildly offensive but I can’t exactly say why. Maybe it’s my liberal sensibilities overreacting.
I think ultimately if an ethnic group finds something offensive then we should probably listen as they would know whether they’re offended or not and I’m not in their shoes. He should probably find a different name.
I wonder if there would be a thing here if he was Asian? If you google “chinese restaurant names” there are numerous attempts at conflating Chinese-sounding names as words with humorous meaning, which I am not going to post here. It’s possible the owners of those establishments are Asian, so no one was offended?
As a single data point, this Chinese man doesn’t give a shit. If they make good food, good for him. They’re not claiming to be authentic. I don’t check the ethnicity of the owners of other types of restaurants.
If it’s just the name that people are objecting to, I don’t think that’s worth getting upset about. It’d be different if it was more like “Benny’s Ching-Chong Chink Chow,” but it’s not. It’s punny and kind of stupid, but not offensive.
WRT the article, I’m not an expert but I wouldn’t expect a restaurant named “Benny Chows” to increase the amount of anti-Asian sentiment.
I hope this principle wouldn’t be carte blanche, that there would have to be some reasonable reason for the ethnic group to be offended. And who gets to speak for the group? One thing that bothered me in the article was that one person, who may not even be Asian for all we know, is saying “it just felt like a step backwards” and nothing else was offered. I went through my own thought process and thought, “yeah, maybe.” Is that enough?
I can work with the word problematic.
The title of the restaurant is not-quite racist (IMHO), but it certainly a pun that evokes the stereotypical names we used to expect as stand-ins for the one dimensional racist characters in a lot of past TV and film.
As such, it’s a poor-taste joke, and makes me, like others in the thread vaguely uncomfortable. I wouldn’t picket it, but unless I had no other choice in my town for Chinese-American Food, I wouldn’t go there. So it’s problematic in that sense as well.
And if it IS the best damn Chinese-American food you can imagine, then you don’t need to bother with a gimicky name.
So why bother? If you want a stereotype, don’t pick one that also, even so slightly, appropriates the culture, or imply the owner shares it. Sure, it’s more memorable than some of the other ‘general’ Chinese restaurant names (Golden Palace, Jade Dragon, Lucky Panda for example out of my local phone book), but I suspect you’ll lose more than you gain.
Chow, or “chao” in Chinese, means stir fry. It’s not a gimmick, it is a description. Hundreds, if not thousands of Chinese restaurants have Chow in their name. I don’t see the problem, unless someone is offended that a white guy cooks Chinese cuisine.
I am guessing the main point of contention is that the owner’s name is
Benny Berg, and he called the restaurant Benny Chows.
I’m not (ethnically) Italian. If I opened a restaurant and called it Crafteroli’s, I doubt anyone would care. But Italians aren’t subjected to the same level of hate & racism that Asians are subjected to, so I think it’s understandable that some would see “Benny Chows” as problematic.
I find the name problematic. Giving a restaraunt a misleading name is fine *. Making an ethnic pun is crossing the line.
- I live not too far from Katrina’s Pizza. Everytime I pass it, I say “For Og’s sake! At least pretend to be Italian!”
Stupid names are stupid, but what in the world is misleading about it? Surely you have heard someone say they wanted to get some chow for dinner?
There is a (different) Chow/Chou which is a common name, but in that case he would be misleading you into… what? Assuming that everyone with that name must be a superb Chinese chef?
I’m not getting it. Play on words and I think one has to look hard to find anything more than that. “Chow” is an old style romanization of the character 周.
Vietnamese restaurants [abound with play on words] that don’t seem to raise hackles (25 Funny Pho Restaurant Pun Names That Get You Every Time) of “Pho”. Pho-ever, Pho-King, What the Pho (which i believe is from a defunct Vietnamese restaurant In Bellevue WA that I used to frequent), Pho-House, Pho-nominal, etc.
It’s in the Heights (which if you live in Houston tells you the place is possibly over-hyped and gentrified as heck and miles from both the old and new Chinatowns) and supposed to be a sort of ‘high-concept’ or ‘elevated’ American Chinese restaurant.
In Houston, there’s a lot (a lot!) of good, cheap American Chinese places, which I thought was supposed to be the appeal (vaguely exotic, cheap, and unlikely to be ever considered remotely healthy). And there’s a lot Chinese Chinese places run by immigrants from just about every region of China that run the full gamut from mom and pop to higher end that also run the gamut from fast food to really quite good.
I’m not really sure who this place is supposed to appeal to, tbh. I don’t want my General Tso’s to be an ‘experience’
It seems to me that the name of the restaurant is supposed to try and make you think it is Chinese owned, when it is not. If it was “Benny’s Chow,” that would be eliminated.
Still, I can’t shake the vaguely negative feeling I got when I heard the name. It just seems such a stereotypical name to give to a character. If you told me you created a fictional character named Benny Chow (and not Benny Chao), I would definitely be on the lookout for it having problematic stereotypes. It’s precisely the outdatedness of that romanization that gives it that feeling.
But, obviously, how I feel shouldn’t matter. It’s Chinese Americans who would know. I note a couple of you said you were Chinese. Are you actually living in China, or in America? I do think that makes a difference.
Thanks for the local info! Then I’d guess, and only that, is that they’re trying to either be ‘hip’ for whatever value it has as a way to generate buzz, or the name trying to be ironic, in the same way many movies try hard to be ‘so bad they’re good.’ Either way, absolutely not my sort of place.
Still think it’s a dumb and more than borderline insulting name, but as BigT pointed out, it isn’t my sensibilities most at risk.
I am Chinese-American. It doesn’t bother me. I don’t care that there are no Mexicans on the executive board of Taco Bell. I assume that my food at Olive Garden is most likely being cooked by a Latino person.
The name does not offend me. As an American, I understand that it is essentially just descriptive. As a Chinese person, I do not feel mocked.
Is there something going on in Texas where the restaurant would get more business if people thought it were Chinese-owned? And/or Chinese-American owned?
yall do realize PF changs had almost no Asians involved in its creation right?
in fact, supposedly they hired asian hosts/hostesses because a lot of people wouldn’t eat in an Asian styled restaurant that didn’t have any employed …so they hired a few for window dressing
yes there’s a belief that if there are not Chinese people cooking in a Chinese restaurant then its no good …although you find that theory in a lot of ethnic cooking in a "there’s a white guy cooking Mexican food ? what the hell does he know about it? " way
In which case I can almost not blame him (though he should have known that funny names are not funny); is he supposed to call it Benny Yes-I-am-A-Culinary-Institute-Graduate-And-Spent-Eight-Years-As-An-Apprentice-In-Hunan’s Restaurant?